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what are you waiting for? this is big news. it was just before thanksgiving 1998. >> she began to see some numbness on her right side. it began spreading larger and larger. she was having more difficulty getting up stairs. we went to a neurologist. >> romney's life was about to take an unexpected and unhappy turn. >> we went into his office, and he performed an examination. it was very clear that she was flunking the examination. she couldn't stand on her right foot without falling over and so forth. he stepped out, and she began to cry, and i welled up tears as well. we hugged each other. and she said, something's

terribly wrong. >> at age 49, ann romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease that can shut down the central nervous system. >> you don't know how much is it going to chew me up and spit me out. where and when is it going to spit me out? how sick am i going to get? is this going to be progressive? am i going to be in a wheelchair? and it's a very, very frightening place to be. >> and i know ann was really distraught and distressed with the diagnosis, particularly as time went on, because she was really ill for quite a while. >> i really just was having a very, very hard time and was very depressed and had kind of given up a little bit. >> it was a tough moment for both of them. it was interesting to see the way he treated her as they went through that, very caring, very loving. very frustrating for him not to be able to step in and fix it, but it was -- you know, they drew even closer. >> even when i was as sick as that, he would curl up in the

bed with me. >> take a minute. >> so you just knew that that's where he was. it was like he was going to do anything he could to just say, i'm here, you're okay, just stay right there, and we'll be okay. >> as the romneys were struggling to get ann's m.s. under control, they were about to face a challenge of an entirely different sort. >> could the scandal over salt lake's olympic bid shatter our city's quest to host the olympic games? >> the 2002 olympics were in trouble. salt lake city was embroiled in a bribery scandal that threatened to bring down the games. so the search was on for someone to repair the damage.

>> romney knew finance, politics and was a mormon. and that made him the top choice. >> they called me instead of mitt because they knew mitt would turn them down flat. >> she called me at work and said, i want you to -- don't say no, mitt. i think you ought to go run the olympics. don't be ridiculous. that's absolutely crazy. i'd never do that. but over time she convinced me. >> so, despite ann's health issues, the romneys left bain and moved to utah in 1999. but when romney really left bain capital is now controversial. on paper, he remained chief executive officer, raising the question of his responsibility for companies that laid off workers when he was in utah. he says that he was gone from the company completely, that the olympics were all-consuming. >> when he got there, it was a disaster. and he was panicked. he really seriously considered saying, it's not going to work here, there's just too many problems. >> romney needed help so he rallied an old friend from bain

capital, fraser bullock, to be the games chief operating officer. >> mitt did describe it as stepping into an empty elevator shaft because you're falling and you're not sure when you will hit ground. >> bullock joined the team that tried to do damage control. they created an operating plan, tried to convince sponsors to stay on board and took a critical look at the nearly $400 million budget deficit staring them in the face. and even got rid of the usual catering at olympic board meetings. >> we had domino's pizza, and it was a dollar a slice. because he knew he could buy a pizza for five bucks, cut it into eight slices, sell them for a dollar a slice, get $8 of revenue for every pizza at a cost of $5. he turned the lunches from a cost center into a profit center. >> the olympics is like putting on seven super bowls a day for

17 days straight. >> and he became the public face of the games, even becoming an amateur participant, seen here on the skeleton. so did he say one day, i think i'm going to try the skeleton? >> yeah. he said, i'm going to go try this. he got better and better and better so he could get going 70 miles an hour, which is crazy. >> but hidden from the public was the continuing personal struggle. >> mitt was always just constantly worried about ann. she was really deteriorating. >> and she battled through it. she got good help from wonderful physicians. >> by august of 2001, it looked like they had ann's m.s. and the olympics under control. but then -- 9/11. >> -- billowing into the sky. >> there's smoke everywhere. >> unspeakable sorrow and a very real fear of terrorism at the

olympics. >> it's a time for us to make sure that everyone in the world recognizes that we don't stop as a nation, that the characteristics of honor and courage, sacrifice and devotion, which is represented by the olympic athletes, is a message more important today than perhaps ever before. >> over the next five months and with the help of some money from the federal government, security was beefed up. and the games began. >> we had about 2,500 athletes that came in, did the parade of nations, walked all the way around. >> it was a great moment for him, i think. as one political pollster in utah said at the time, mitt romney could walk on water at that point. >> but not everyone agreed. >> mitt and i often had disagreements about how or what we thought the games were about. and i wasn't on his team, so to speak. >> it's a gold medal day for

utah. >> ken bullock, no relation to frazier bullock, was on the organizing committee of the salt lake city olympics before and after romney was brought on board. he was a sort of my way or the highway kind of guy? >> absolutely, no question. to me, the games were about utah. it wasn't about mitt. >> bullock claims romney made the problems look worse than they really were, a calculated political move to ensure public success. >> did we need to raise revenue? were we short? yes. were we three years out? yes. big difference of the games being around the corner. >> so you think he overstated the problems? >> dramatically. dramatically. >> it's a charge the romney camp scoffs at. and in the end, the 2002 olympics were profitable and one of the most successful winter games in history. >> he had pulled off this big success. he had rescued these games.

and now it was a question of what he would parlay that into. >> it wouldn't take long for that question to be answered. ñço jen's car wasn't handling well.

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the opening ceremonies for the 2002 winter olympics were

still more than a month away, but mitt romney already had other plans. beth myers remembers getting a call from romney in january. >> i'm thinking about running for governor, and would you have any interest in helping me run my campaign? >> massachusetts had a republican governor, jane swift, but party leaders saw her as weak so they came to romney in a panic. >> jane swift gets wind of this, and two days later she bows out. so she's out and mitt romney is in. he flies back to belmont with his wife, ann, they're both wearing olympic jackets and give a press conference, and the campaign's begun. >> romney's campaign spokesman. >> it was like being launched out of a rocket. >> how you doing? >> as you know, this is a very democratic state. the legislature is 85% democrat. very few republicans make it into statewide office. so we had a fight on our hands.

>> he ran as a moderate on social issues, vowing to clean up state government. >> would you raise your right hand, please? >> it worked. >> congratulations, governor. >> thank you. >> from the beginning, romney relied on a small set of advisors. beth myers, who has never spoken on camera before, was chief of staff. >> people call you romney's romney. >> for four years, we sat in offices that had a door between us and we popped back and forth between each other's offices all day long. we talked about faith. we talked about the issues of the day. >> first order of business, treat government like a business. >> we had a huge budget deficit so every morning we'd come in and we'd have stacks and stacks of budget books, and line by line -- and mitt would meet in his staff office every morning

with the cabinet secretaries. >> it was the way he had always done it, at bain, at the olympics. but here not everyone was on romney's team. >> i will agree that he was a different cat than what people on beacon hill were used to. i think that's probably a pretty good thing. >> i got better over time. i know i made mistakes in how i dealt with others in the legislature, but we started off pretty well. >> then, two years into his term, he set his sights on something bigger, something that would mean a legacy -- health care. >> he had not had a major achievement that he could point to as some big political success in a future campaign. he needed something to say, i had done this and it was a big deal. >> romney decided to push for health care to cover everyone in the state, but that meant mandating most residents to buy health insurance. >> the governor felt that it

would be wrong for the economy and wrong for our business sector to impose a mandate on employers, to require them to provide insurance to their employees. but he felt it very important that people take responsibility for their own health care. >> it was romney's big moment. but now a liability. republicans bitterly oppose any kind of mandate in today's presidential race. >> i think the politics of it have been so complicated that it's ironic the biggest thing he achieved as governor is something he almost never talks about. >> no less complicated, the politics of abortion. while romney was personally opposed to abortion, he ran for governor supporting abortion rights. but once in office and presented with stem cell legislation that would, in romney's view, have the potential of destroying embryos, he changed his mind. >> and i realized that what sounded good in a campaign, when i actually became the governor

and was going to be the person who would sign a piece of legislation which could take human life, i simply couldn't do that. >> democrats say it was about ambition. >> he wanted to run for president of the united states, and he understood that within the republican nominating process, somebody that was pro choice or pro gay rights or anything in terms of a progressive stance would lose. >> i didn't ever see it as a flip-flop. i think that what you saw was the tension between personal beliefs and a public persona. >> none of this would slow romney down. his sights were already set on the white house in 2008. but there were doubts about his convictions and questions about his mormon faith, a religion some evangelicals call a cult. >> mormonism is the most colorful and controversial, politically toxic and dangerous because people pull out strands

and skewer them. >> there was no avoiding it, though, so romney decided to give a crucial speech on his faith early in the primaries. >> he wrote it. he really wrote every word. >> he wrote every word of it. i heenl mean, you very rarery hear that about a politician. >> he did. >> i am an american running for president. i do not define my candidacy by my religion. a person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith. >> ultimately, 2008 was not mitt romney's year. it was john mccain's. a brutal loss for romney and his family. >> i feel i have to now stand aside. >> for me, i was like, that's it, okay, we did that. that's fine. never again. you guys are great.

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you guys are great. almost but not quite.

>> i will never do this again. and i just made sure it was very emphatic. >> the romney family seemed done with politics and didn't keep it a secret. >> it was again a very bruising thing. i think people forget that these are real families, the people they love that are going through these hard times. >> when you lose, there's a period of intense disappointment. >> alex castellanos was a senior romney adviser during the 2008 campaign. >> he's not a wallow in defeat kind of guy. he's, okay, that's done, stand >> i served in government, but i didn't inhale. i'm still a business guy. >> fixing his 2008 mistake, romney had one driving message.

>> and have the experience to get our economy back on track. that's the kind of leader i aspire to be. >> it became his mantra. but the tea party, full of contempt for health care reform, never trusted romney, the man who reformed health care in massachusetts. erick erickson is the editor of redstate.com, a conservative website. >> you sit in a room with conservatives behind the scenes without cameras on and ask them how many really believe mitt romney will fully repeal obama-care, i don't think a hand would go up in the room. >> when romney calls himself this -- >> i was a severely conservative republican governor. >> -- he gets this. >> that's not a line you hear conservatives say about themselves. that's something you hear democrats say about conservatives. >> this is not the time to be doubting people's words. >> one by one, the old demons reappeared. >> romney-care. >> pro abortion. >> bain capital. >> handing the democrats a primer on romney's vulnerabilities. >> i will release multiple years. i don't know how many years. >> on bain, flip-flops, taxes,

secrecy, his wealth. but romney finally crawled across the finish line. and his new junior partner, paul ryan, has given reluctant conservatives some hope. >> i want to hear what he has to say on this topic. >> but presidential politics is more than just piecing together coalitions. it's also about telling a story of who you are, what you believe and why you can be trusted. >> he's very professional. he's got a bit of new england in him. when he's out doing a job, he's going to do it professionally, but he's not the caricature the media or democrats want to portray. he's a very warm, caring guy. >> good morning. >> romney is trying to let people in, like wading into scripture as he speaks after the aurora, colorado, shootings.

>> romney painted his own unflattering portrait and the damage endured. >> his problem during this campaign, if you look at the polls, is that a significant majority of people do not believe he understands their problems. and when he talked about the 47%, that only seemed to compound that problem. >> i think the first, most important thing is to recognize that that's not an accurate perception, that he's obviously running for 100% of the americans. >> the first presidential debate became the most important job

interview of romney's career. a moment for him to fix things. >> as soon as he gets on stage, the first thing he does, takes off his watch and puts it on the podium. but then he writes "dad" on a piece of paper. and that's amazing because he loves his dad, respects his dad, doesn't want to do anything that would not make his father proud. and just a reminder that, yes, i'm here, but, dad, i love and respect who you are, what you've taught me, what kind of a person you are, and i'm going to honor that. >> middle income families are being crushed. >> romney attacked. obama wilted. >> you've been president fourees. you said you'd cut the deficit in half. it's years later, we have trillion-dollar deficits. >> it was a romney turnaround recasting romney from the right to the middle during the next two debates. >> regulation is essential.

you can't have a free market work if you don't have regulation. >> opening the door for the opposition to ask, who's the real romney? >> we've got to name this condition he's going through. i think -- i think it's called romneysia. >> people say you're secretive, out of touch, you play by a different set of rules. >> i know the obama campaign is going to do everything they can to try and deflect from the economic record of the president and his failure to come up with the plan to get the economy going in the future. >> no doubt romney is on message this time. he wants us to believe he can fix things like the economy and won't give up until he does. but that's the easy part of his story. the rest is harder to tell. he's a devout mormon who still worries it will be held against him. he's more pragmatist than ideologue, more private than public, and in the end more

cautious than candid, possibly the ult will mat lesson he learned from his father's life. >> he cared about the passion for the mission he was in the middle of fighting for and win being or losing didn't change who he was. he's been defined as a man of character throughout his life. elections don't change that. >> is that how you feel during the election, win or lose? >> absolutely. this is up to the american people. who i am has long been decided by my wife, my five sons, my grandchildren and sons in law and people who know me best.

>> he doesn't just want to be another president. he wanted to be a great president. >> cool under pressure. >> it was a huge risk that the president took. >> the united states killed osama bin laden. >> his presidency marked by political division. >> speaker boehner, he says you flinched. >> i'm sure that's his version of events. >> i think the biggest failure is the president's unwillingness to listen to the american people. >> a man whose style would both help him and hurt him as a leader. >> when i'm making decisions, i

try to not get caught up in the emotions of the moment. >> "obama revealed, the man, the president." it was an historic moment. >> prepare to take the oath, senator? >> i am. i, barack hussein obama -- >> so help you god? >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> a new day with towering expectations. >> he looked at me and said, it's been an incredible ride, hasn't it? i said yeah. he said, it's just beginning. >> on this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over

fear. unity of purpose over conflict and discord. >> for many, barack obama and his presidency symbolized much more than political change. >> for the sons and daughters of slaves, their offspring, for people who have build a capital. it means so much to every human being that live in this country. >> may god bless the united states of america. hope is what led me here today. >> candidate obama ran on a message of hope and change. it's not just the size of the crowds but there's something

different. people come and wait for hours for him. sometimes they start crying when he talks. >> barack obama! >> i need you to stand up! >> we want change! we want change! we want change! >> do you think people saw in him what they wanted to? >> there was some projection on to him perhaps more than anybody could ever live up to. >> the country needed help and in a hurry. >> today, we learned that our economy shrank in the last three months of 2008. that's the worst contraction in close to three decades. >> rahm emanuel would be the president's chief of staff. >> slightly like rolling thunder because you could have taken the economy, the auto, you could have taken the financial, you could have taken afghanistan, you could have taken iraq. usually, there's an "a," a "b." what happens when all five are

as? >> it was basically awful. >> economic adviser austan goolsbee watched in horror as the stock market dropped more than 500 points in a day. >> there was a bottle of bourbon sitting there in the campaign. it had been there for a year and a half and i said, man, if there ever was a day to have a drink of this emergency bourbon, it's today. >> and then it got worse. >> the next day, dropped another 500 points. and then late in the campaign, it happens again and somebody says, where's the bourbon? i said, the bottle's empty. >> the emergency bourbon was gone and the economy was in dire shape. one month before his inauguration, barack obama called an urgent meeting during a chicago blizzard. >> the president meets for the first time with all his economic advisers as a group for four hours. everybody is in the room is

struck with the gravity of the situation. >> i said, mr. president, this is your holy bleep moment. you are facing the worst downturn since the great depression. we're going to have to hit this with everything we have. >> the president is very clear. we need to act. we need to make our mistakes on the side of pulling the band aid off fast. that was the phrase he used. he made the decision that day to go for a massive stimulus program. >> when the briefing's over, i go up to the president-elect and say, that's got to be the worst briefing that the president-elect had since 1932 and maybe since abraham lincoln in 1860. and the president says, goolsbee, that's not even my worse briefing this week. >> my first job when i came into office was making sure we didn't

get into a great depression and the economy could start growing again. >> also high on the president's agenda, his campaign promise to heal the nation's bitter partisan divide. >> we are more than a collection of red states and blue states. we're the united states of america. >> after a month in office, a whopping 76% of americans approved of the new president's job performance. though he was only just beginning. >> you could create whatever you wanted out of him. he was a folklore figure right out of the gate. >> what do you think people expected him to do? >> i think people didn't know. the problem with change is change for what. >> the speaker who electrified crowds on the campaign trail would become a calm, cool leader once in office. a lot of people describe you as cool.

that cuts both ways. fair description? >> people who know me well and people on the campaign trail, i don't think they describe me that way. i am in a lot of ways an extrovert when it comes to folks outside the beltway. i'm not sure it's hurt. except maybe for some of my relations i think inside of the beltway here in washington. >> he's not easily categorized in any way. he wants it all. he's rationale first of all. he's a little bit deliberative and cautious. once in a while, he'll go for the bold stroke because he wants something larger. >> the president's next decisions would move the right to anger. >> you better wake up, america. >> the left to disappointment. and leave a nation more

polarized than ever. >> i think he came in feeling his own exceptionalism. and then the realities of washington smacked him in the e

january 2009. the president's promises of hope and change would be put to the test by the worst financial crisis in modern history. >> you look at any important economic statistic. they were collapsing faster in the fall of 2008 than they had collapsed in the fall of 1929. >> 11 million americans unemployed. 13 million homes in foreclosure. the president's chief economist saw an unprecedented hole opening in the economy. >> we were hanging on the edge of a cliff. in fact, we were starting down that. down into the abyss. >> for once, most in washington

agreed. something had to be done. >> things were bad. it needed to be big. it needed to be bold. >> but there were vast disagreements on how bold. some in the president's party wanted a rescue plan close to $2 trillion. >> it's a funny thing to say but every $100 million helps. so by doing a bigger program than what had been on table absolutely meant we were getting more job creation, more help for the economy. >> republicans balked at anything approaching even half that. >> i don't believe our colleagues had a sense that another $108 billion will solve the problem. >> ultimately, the president decide to try to rev the economy's engine with an $87 billion stimulus plan. the president felt he needed bipartisan support so he met with republican members of congress. before he took office, days after inauguration and on super bowl sunday. he was pitching a bill that would give tax cuts to almost

all americans. pay salaries for teachers and cops. build roads and bridges and more. republicans objected to the spending and to the president's tone. >> we outlined other ideas we thought would help get the economy moving again and put people back to work. those issues were rejected. and the president at that same meeting said, you have to understand that, you know, when we disagree, you have to remember, that i won. >> a phrase like "i won" wasn't winning the president any friends. but the president says he was listening to republicans. >> if anything i think i received a lot of criticism from my own party for going out of my

way to try to solicit republican cooperation. and the fact of the matter was that politically there was a decision that was made fairly early on among some of their leadership that said working with the president is not good politics. >> i think he came in sort of feeling his own exceptionalism. and then the realities of washington smacked him in the head. >> by the time the president went to sell the bill to congress, republicans seem to have made up their minds. >> on my trip up to the hill, they released an e-mail saying, we're going to be voting against it, before they'd even heard our presentation. >> in a stinging rebuke, every house republican voted no. >> the bill that was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs, has turned into a bill that's all about spending, spending, and spending. >> two months after the

election, the republicans said this is your problem. we're going to start planning for four years from now. >> the president scrambled his team to the hill to try to save the bill in the senate. when the stimulus finally passed -- >> and that's it, dana. >> that's it -- >> he came with the nearly $800 billion price tag and the support of only three senate republicans. one of them was olympia snowe. >> he just got off to a poor start. unfortunately, the wrong foot. and set the tone for the remainder of his administration. had only begun. >> she believes the president missed a crucial opportunity to engage republicans early on. >> i'm not so sure that he truly understands the relationship and the interaction that occurs between the president and the legislative branch. >> with hindsight, his closest aides admit room for improvement. >> there wasn't a whole lot of time left over for sort of hand

holding and schmoozing. perhaps we should have made more time for it. but at the time it seemed like he was spending his waking hours doing what he was supposed to do. >> republicans howled the spending was too much. and when unemployment blew past the administration's 8% projection -- >> i made a bad forecast. >> republicans slammed it as a failure. >> it turned out that the hole we were trying to dig ourselves out of was deeper than we had anticipated. >> years later the nonpartisan congressional budget office would find that the stimulus or recovery act saved or created more than 3 million jobs. but by then, the battle lines were drawn. in a clash of ideas that would dominate the president's term. >> between the belief that government is going to solve your problems to belief that the era of big government is over.

>> the president had lost control of the message and the hopes for partnership with republicans. >> they were kind of coming at it like the old east german judge at the olympics where it doesn't matter what, you know, the president could be doing a triple flip lutz and they're giving him a 2. the card's already filled out. >> hi. >> hi. you know, i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. >> you just read my mind. >> announcer: just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. that's why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most... [beeping...] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. and now you can have the most comprehensive identity theft protection available today... lifelock ultimate. so for protection you just can't get anywhere else, get lifelock ultimate. >> i didn't know how serious identity theft was until i lost my credit and eventually i lost my home. >> announcer: credit monitoring is not enough, because it tells you after the fact, sometimes

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preserb, protect and defend the constitution of the united states. >> so help you god. >> so help me god. >> congratulation, mr. president. >> the first 100 days traditionally gives an incoming president a soft start. >> at the end of every day, we would either be in the oval office or we'd take a walk. >> president obama and his chief of staff rahm emanuel kept close tabs on their to-do list.

>> then we made sure we had our -- he and i used this word interchangeably, our north stars. you know, it's easy in these jobs day to day to get thrown off course. what's your north star, what do you need to get done. >> did you expect there to be a honeymoon period? >> i don't remember walking the halls saying should we get a honeymoon? i don't really -- we got problems to solve. i don't have the luxury of looking at oil paintings and talking to them. >> even as the stimulus fight was at fever pitch, the auto industry was falling fatally ill. >> literally, they were talking about two weeks and bust. there was not two years. there was not, we have a problem here. we think we can keep it alive for two weeks. >> if general motors and chrysler had been liquidated, in all likelihood, other automobile companies would have collapsed. an entire supplier network.

the consequences would have been felt in either community in the country. >> the car companies had squandered their first cash infusion from president bush. months later when gm and chrysler asked pour more taxpayer money, congress refused. so the president did it on his own. >> we cannot and must not and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish. >> and he went against the advice of his own -- some cases, his own advisers. >> he bailed out the auto industry anyway in a wildly unpopular move opposed by nearly three quarters of americans. as well as his future republican opponent mitt romney. at first the restructuring of the industry cost thousands their jobs. >> when you look at everything from the auto bailout which was very unpopular at the time. if i'd been leading with emotions or had my political hat on, we might not have done, but

saved a million jobs. >> ultimately, the bailout saved jobs and it provided the industry a safety net. but the president was not effective at selling it. >> it would be great if you were sitting down for an hour-long lecture in a classroom but not necessarily try to sell it to the public. he doesn't think in sound bites. >> while the president pushed forward on his agenda, his critics reacted to what they saw as one liberal program after another. stimulus. auto rescue. homeowner relief. >> lennon and stalin would love this stuff. >> then in february 2009 a defining attack on cnbc that tapped into a rich vein of rage. >> you know, mansions and a relatively decent economy. they moved from the individual to the collective. now they're driving '54 chevys. we're thinking of having a chicago tea party. >> the tea party was born. conservatives would see each new

program as an ominous sign of the encroachment of big government. >> the economy's terrible because i think president obama is practicing a lost decade economics. more borrow. more demand side economics. a massive amount of uncertainty on regulation, on taxes, on interest rates. >> the president had angered the right. but he also riled the left when he asked for another $300 billion for the wall street banks. >> bailout working families! bailout working families! >> then staggering news. failing insurance giant aig had received $170 billion. in taxpayer dollars. now it paid millions in bonuses to the very executives who wrecked the place. >> what happened with these bonuses was a mugging on wall street. >> privately, advisers say the president was outraged. >> and i think it offended people's values and it offended his values.

>> but publicly the president was slow to respond. >> i think people are right to be angry. i'm angry. >> the administration let the bonuses stand. and the president missed an opening to champion the change he had promised. >> you get out of this president a lot of butter knife routines. you know, these some abusers on wall street. who? name the names. he doesn't want to do that because he doesn't like conflict. >> aides say it's just not his style. >> is he going to, like, get up on the sofa and yell and scream and stomp his feet? i don't think so. i think people misconceive the expression of emotion with the idea of having emotion. >> ten months later, when more wall street bonuses were revealed, the president finally channeled his inner rage during an interview on "60 minutes." >> i did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of, you know, fat cat bankers on wall street. >> the bank bailout helped keep wall street alive and credit

flowing. eventually the government recouped that $300 billion plus a profit. and the president got his wall street reform through congress. but before his first 100 days were over, he had upset constituencies across the spectrum. >> well, he's either called the golden mean or the brass mean. either one. because you're right, the heads of the banks hate him. a lot of other people think all he's done is protect them. he's both a socialist and advocate for the 1%. go figure how you are. simultaneously. >> i thought that would be hard work but that proved remarkably easy to find ways to make everybody mad. >> out of the gate, the president seemed disconnected from the president and ready to tackle his own agenda. >> all the work we did with the recovery act and giving people tax cuts and saving the auto industry all were designed to

make sure that we righted the ship. but as i reminded my staff, we ran in 2008 not only to get back to the pre-crisis situation but also to solve problems that had been, you know, hurting middle class families for a decade or more. >> in other words, the president wanted to get on with the work he went to the white house to do. and that meant the biggest battle of his presidency. >> let there be no doubt, health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait and it will not wait another year. back in january 2008, the

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